462 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [eth. ANN. 32 



agreed to start out together, afterward separating to create forests 

 and lakes and other things. They parted as agreed, Othagwenda 

 going westward and Djuskaha eastward. In the course of time, on 

 returning, they met in their shelter or lodge at night, then agreeing 

 to go the next day to see what each had made. First they went west 

 to see what Othagwenda had made. It was found that he had made 

 the counti'y all rocks and full of ledges, and also a mosquito which 

 was very large. Djuskaha asked the mosquito to run, in order that 

 he might see whether the insect could fight. The mosquito ran, and 

 sticking his bill through a sapling, thereby made it fall, at which 

 Djuskaha said, " That will not be right, for you would kill the peo- 

 ple who are about to come." So, seizing him, he rubbed him down in 

 his hands, causing him to become very small;, then he blew on the 

 mosquito, whereupon he flew away. He also modified some of the 

 other animals which his brother had made. After returning to their 

 lodge, they agreed to go the next day to see what Djuskaha had 

 fashioned. On visiting the east the next day, they found that Djus- 

 kaha had made a large number of animals which were so fat that 

 they could hardly move; that he had made the sugar-maple trees 

 to drop syrup ; that he had made the sycamore tree to bear fine fruit ; 

 that the rivers were so formed that half the water flowed upstream 

 and the other half downstream. Then the reddish-colored brother, 

 Othagwenda, was greatly displeased with what his brother had made, 

 saying that the people who were about to come would live too easily 

 and be too happy. So he shook violently the various animals — the 

 bears, deer, and turkeys — causing them to become small at once, a 

 characteristic which attached itself to their descendants. He also 

 caused the sugar maple to drop sweetened water onh', and the fruit 

 of the sycamore to become small and useless; and lastly he caused 

 the water of the rivers to flow in only one direction, because the 

 original plan would make it too easy for the human beings who were 

 about to come to navigate the streams. 



The inspection of each other's work resulted in a deadly disagree- 

 ment between the brothers, who finally came to grips and blows, and 

 Othagwenda was killed in the fierce struggle. 



99. S'hagoditoweqgowa and Hot'hoh ^'' 



There were a mother and two daughters living in a clearing. 

 When the daughters became women the mother said : " You must 

 now get married. Make twenty loaves of green-corn bread, tied 

 up in husks in the usual manner." The girls made the bread, and 

 the next morning the mother said to the elder daughter : " Fill a 

 basket with the bread and go to the lodge of a man who lives not 

 far from here. It is a double lodge. Go in at the first door and 



